(TNS) – The Cleveland City Council on Monday approved buying diagnostic software designed to allow Cleveland Public Power to better monitor demands on its electrical grid and better prevent outages.

The software will let city-owned CPP monitor the grid in real time to better identify potential problems, such as transformers that have the potential to become overloaded as power demands increase.

The expectation is that the software will help prevent some outages, reduce outage times and optimize performance of the grid. It also will monitor LED streetlight consumption and help identify unauthorized power use in the electrical system.

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Legislation approved Monday authorizes the city to spend up to $250,000 over two years for a professional services contract to access the software. It also provides for two one-year renewal options at $125,000 each.

The software upgrades are part of a series of improvements that CPP initiated following multiple power outages around Labor Day and earlier in the summer, principally on Cleveland’s West Side.

The outages were primarily due to heavy demands on the system. Temperatures in Cleveland approached 90 degrees when the outages occurred around Labor Day.

That drove up use of air conditioners, which place demands on the system that can lead to malfunctions.

Other improvements that CPP has undertaken include adding a second feeder line to the West Side at a cost of $6 million.

A separate project, estimated at about $18 million, will add a transmission line, allowing CPP to deliver power to the West Side from multiple points, reducing the chances of outages.